


Baby, Loving You Is a War

by hayj



Category: Revolution (TV)
Genre: Blackout AU, F/M, background Miles and Rachel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 18:54:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17106233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hayj/pseuds/hayj
Summary: Soulmate fic in which the party’s can feel each other’s pain/emotions if they’re strong enough





	Baby, Loving You Is a War

When Bass is twenty five years old, he has the oddest sensation. His lungs suddenly hurt and the light is blinding. He feels exposed and vulnerable and it doesn’t go away until he finally crawls into bed and sleeps for twelve hours straight. After that the sensation is bearable and gradually eases.

* * *

 

When Charlie is three, she clutches her heart and screams, falling to her knees. Rachel and Ben are terrified, rushing her to the emergency room where they run a battery of tests, finding nothing wrong. She’s despondent for weeks afterwards.

 

When she’s eight, the same thing happens again, but this time there is no hospital to take her to. Ben cares for her to best of his ability while dealing with Rachel’s mental instability. It lasts longer than a few weeks this time.

* * *

 

When Bass is thirty-nine, he suddenly groans, clutching his arm to his chest. He doesn’t know how, but he knows for a fact that his arm is broken. When the doctor arrives and exams him, there’s nothing wrong.

 

“Have you given consideration to the fact that you might have a soulmate out there somewhere?” The doctor asks, looking down at him.

 

That gets Bass thinking.

* * *

 

When Charlie is fifteen, Danny drags her into the house calling for Maggie. “What happened?” Maggie asks as Charlie’s back arches and she gasps for breath, clutching their hands to keep her centered as her head feels ready to explode. She eventually passes out from the pain.

 

When she awakes, her father is sitting by her bed, reading. “Dad?”

 

“Welcome back,” he says, setting his book aside.

 

“What happened?” she asks, her entire body hurting to the point she can barely move.

 

“We don’t know,” Ben answers with a small smile. “Maggie’s best guess is that you have a soulmate.”

 

“A soulmate?” Charlie breaths as she rubs at her temple.

 

Ben nods. “A very injured soulmate.” Getting up from his chair, he leaves her to her thoughts.

* * *

 

When Bass is forty-five years old, he thinks he’s having a heart attack. Jeremy sends for the doctor, all the while staying by his friend’s side. And, while they don’t know for sure, the doctor can find no signs of one having taken place.

 

“We’ve talked about this, Bass. Chances are this is simply a reaction to your soulmate.”

 

“Great,” Bass mutters as he slowly recovers, the pain re-occurring mostly at night.

 

After that, it was almost a daily barrage of pain. Hunger pain, heartache, a feeling he’s more than familiar with by now between hers and his own, the knowledge that whomever she was, she had been branded and now carried his mark upon her body. She had been in an untold number of fights, and at one point had almost drowned. Then, the day of the night Tom had informed him that Miles was back in town, he’d had an excruciating headache and had to lie down for several hours. He hadn’t felt pain that intense since the Birthday Bombing.

* * *

 

When he meets Miles’ niece, he thinks nothing about the girl, dismissing her presence except for her use in bending Rachel to his will.

 

Once they’ve escaped, the pain in the back of his head no longer registers as he falls further into mental instability.

* * *

 

Miles watches in horror as the bullet passes through Emma and hits Bass, and mistakes Charlie’s cry of pain as one of anger, watching Bass fall through their fingers once again.

 

However, that’s when she realizes just exactly who her soulmate is and instead of fessing up to her Uncle, because who knows what his reaction will be, she keeps it to herself.

* * *

 

They both grit their teeth and make it through the next eight months, Charlie grinning and bearing it this time, especially after the tower. She doesn’t know what the fuck Monroe has gotten himself into but she’s convinced he’s trying to kill her.

* * *

 

When the girl is shot and falls to the bottom of the pool at his feet, Bass grimaces in pain and gets his first inkling that perhaps Miles niece is more important than he first considered.

 

He knows it for a fact when he punches her in the solar plexus and knocks the breath out of her.

 

Torn between leaving her there or taking a chance of dealing with the other bounty hunter, he leaves her behind.

* * *

 

When they meet back up, he confronts her with it all. The fact he knows who and what she is, along with the wanted posters.

 

When she stalks away from him in righteous indignation, he grits his teeth with a roll of his eyes. It must be some kind of karmic justice that’s saddled him with yet another Matheson. After all, denial is their first, last and middle names.

* * *

 

He’s nearby when she’s attacked in the bar, swooping in to defend what’s his. Slumping to the floor, Charlie watches as the bar becomes a bloodbath before slipping into nothingness. It’s this that unnerves Bass the most as he carries her away. For the last twenty-one years she’s always been there, a niggle in the back of his brain, flaring up at the most inopportune time. Hell, even her cramps are enough to make him bitchy at the best of times. But, for the moment, there’s nothing but silence and he hates it more than anything he’s ever hated before.

 

Whomever had decided that the concept of soulmates sharing their pain was a good idea must have truly hated the human race.

* * *

 

When she wakes, she's spiting kittens. No longer willing to give her an option, Bass tells her how it’s going to be. He figures she can’t hate him more than she already does.

* * *

 

It’s an amazing feeling when the most your soulmate has is the occasional hunger pain and sore ass from riding over crappy roads. Bass thinks that he probably hasn’t felt this good since before Charlie was born.

 

He has no idea how she’s survived until now.

* * *

 

Charlie finds him curious. She knows some of the things that have caused her pain, but not many, so decides to make a game out of it. Once at breakfast and once at dinner, she asks him about a certain pain. He amuses her the first few days and then begins to play along. There’s only been twice that he’s answered the question, because who is he kidding, he’ll never deny her, curtly and without detail.

 

As soon as he speaks, Charlie knows how much the answers pain him, because she has the same reaction when she speaks the names of her own dead and their manner of death. Turns out it’s hard to hold a grudge against someone when they’ve experienced the same grief as you.

* * *

 

It's a curious thing when they arrive in Willoughby and Miles see’s them both for the first time. His jubilation at her being alive and home, turns into anger when he accuses Bass of touching her, and although nothing physical has happened between them, neither of them deny it, because he’s been touching her since the day of her birth, just not in the way Miles means.

 

Rachel is livid when she learns her daughter has come home dragging Bass along behind her.

 

Neither of them has spoken the truth of things to anyone other than themselves. When she tells Rachel that they need him, she’s not lying.

 

When she makes the decision to stay with him and act as the go between between Bass and her family, Rachel is incensed.

* * *

 

It’s only days later when they’re captured. As expected, Charlie is released to her Grandfather, but not Bass.

 

No, Texas has decided that his death is the only thing that will placate their thirst for justice and Charlie is forced to do the one thing that she never wanted to do. She has to admit to her Mother and Uncle that Sebastian Monroe is her Soulmate. She’s never begged for anything before in her life, but she begs for their help now, in keeping him alive.

* * *

It was all for naught, she thinks as the Ranger escorts her into the bank where they’re holding him until his execution. There was no way to break him out once he was moved and Rachel was unmoved by her pleas. To think that this is the way it will end is unfathomable to her.

 

Moving forward to the bars, Charlie grasps them to keep herself upright. Pain is flowing through her synapses, leaving her gasping for breath as he joins her, wrapping his hands around hers.

 

“Give her my things when she leaves,” he demands of the Ranger at the door who’s only acknowledgement of his demand is a nod.

 

“I wish I could have known you better, Charlotte,” he whispers, as he reaches out to brush away the lone tear trickling down her cheek.

 

Charlie looks towards the ceiling as she inhales, fighting to keep her emotions under control. “You know me better than anyone,” she whispers back, threading her fingers with his.

 

WIth a nod, Bass reaches through the bars, tangling his hand in the hair at the back of her head, pressing his forehead to hers. “You’re the only thing that’s kept me sane,” he confides, causing a nearly hysterical giggle to escape her throat as she shakes her head in light of the situation.

 

“That must make me the worst soulmate ever,” she breathes, pressing her lips to his.

 

When they break apart, Bass removes his hands from her body and takes a step back. “I love you, Charlotte Matheson, and I’ll always be grateful for the fact that you were mine, if just for a little while.”

A sob finally manages to break free from her throat as she looks at him one last time, committing his features and taste to memory. “I love you, too, Bass. I always will,” she whispers before spinning blindly away, almost forgetting to take the small box that contains his life's possessions.

* * *

 

Stepping out into the night, she’s lost. Adrift with no where to go. She finally decides on the bar, where she finds Miles. Throwing a few diamonds on the bar, the bartender shoves a bottle and a glass in her direction. Grabbing them, she makes her way to Miles and sits across from him, setting the small box on the table between them. There is commiseration between them as they drink in silence, and when Charlies’ back goes stiff with a gasp and her eyes flutter back in her head, Miles reaches for her hand, anchoring her to him. His eyes remain dry, just barely, as the bell at the church begins to toll.

 

But, as broken as he is, he watches as the light fades from Charlie’s eyes.

* * *

It’s late and their bottles are empty when he guides her to his apartment. Setting the box on the table, he leads her to the bed, setting her down on the side furthest away from the door. Removing her boots, belt and weapons, he pushes her gently down to the pillow, covering her with the blanket at the end of the bed. Removing his own gear, he blows out the lamp he had left burning and lays down next to her in the darkness.

* * *

 

It’s barely dawn and the town gates would have just opened when someone is beating down his door. Opening it, he finds Rachel, who barges her way in.

 

“Good, Charlie’s here as well. That makes things easier. I need you both to come with me.”

 

“Jesus,” he hisses, looking over at Charlie’s still form. “Can’t you even give us a day to lick our wounds?” he demands, so disgusted by her actions he can barely look at her.

 

“Miles. I know how you both must feel about me right now, but I promise, it’ll be worth your while.”

 

With an angry sigh, he makes his way to Charlie, who in all actuality, probably never went to sleep, pulling her up as he slips her boots back on her.

 

Leaving the box where it sets, he keeps a hand on her arm the entire way, not convinced that if he let go, she wouldn’t just sit down and die.

* * *

 

When they reach the house that’s just close enough to town, but far enough away from the patrols, Rachel guides them to a brightly lit room in the back, and there, on the mattress that had seen better days, lies Bass Monroe.

 

Miles catches Charlie just before she hits the floor.

 

He gently slaps her cheeks, bringing her back to consciousness with a labored exhale. She searches his eyes looking for answers and he nods in conformation.

* * *

 

She stands back, away from both her uncle and her mother as Miles calls out Bass’ name.

 

When he wakes all dopey and smiling, she has to bend over, placing her hands on her knees in order to stay upright.

 

“Why’d ya do it?” She asks Rachel, who looks at her curiously.

 

“Because we need him. And you asked me to.”

 

If she expects to get a thank you from her daughter she’s sadly mistaken.

 

When an explosion in town rocks the house, Miles and Rachel are halfway out the door before they realize that Charlie isn’t behind them. Turning back, Miles asks what she’s doing.

 

“I’m not going anywhere,” she tells them, looking up from her spot on the mattress next to Bass.

 

This is where she belongs and regardless of who needs her help she’s not doing this without him. Not anymore.

 

As Bass gives her loopy grin, Charlie can’t help but smile back

 

“Sleep,” she tells him. “I’ve got you now.”

 

~fin~


End file.
